I thought this film was quite good in dealing with a family's pain surrounding the loss of a loved one and the subsequent hardships. It was subtle in revealing the father's cause of death, focusing instead on each of his daughters' difficulties, as well as the mother's. The 11-year-old can't fully accept his death, while the older teenager is full of anger. Their mother is having trouble paying the bills. The two young actresses are simply superb.
There are a couple of things that bothered me though. The older girl gets sexually assaulted by an older man she's interested in (she naively went to his house), yet goes back to him. The relationship was inappropriate to begin with, but he's forgiven simply because he apologized to her. She also regularly steals but gives some of the money to her mother to help with the bills. Her mother doesn't ask questions.
The younger girl repeatedly gets bullied by a group of girls at school. It's pretty severe yet she doesn't tell her mother. The girls go unpunished even though they might have killed her. Her older sister punches the ringleader, but she doesn't tell the mother either. This doesn't reflect well on their mother, which perhaps is the point. She loves them but is struggling herself.
These scenes were difficult to watch. I credit the young actresses for making me care about their characters.
There are a couple of things that bothered me though. The older girl gets sexually assaulted by an older man she's interested in (she naively went to his house), yet goes back to him. The relationship was inappropriate to begin with, but he's forgiven simply because he apologized to her. She also regularly steals but gives some of the money to her mother to help with the bills. Her mother doesn't ask questions.
The younger girl repeatedly gets bullied by a group of girls at school. It's pretty severe yet she doesn't tell her mother. The girls go unpunished even though they might have killed her. Her older sister punches the ringleader, but she doesn't tell the mother either. This doesn't reflect well on their mother, which perhaps is the point. She loves them but is struggling herself.
These scenes were difficult to watch. I credit the young actresses for making me care about their characters.
